Here’s one of those seemingly minor updates that may actually be a big deal for you. Google has moved its Exchange Services app to the Play Store, a strategy it has done with nearly all core system apps to enable quicker updates.

Now that Microsoft Exchange email works with Gmail on all Android devices (previously this was limited to Nexus phones and tablets), this will ensure you can get feature enhancements and bug fixes without waiting for an Android system update.

The transition is accompanied by a few new features: support for out of office replies, rich text formatting, event forwarding, and support for the latest version of ActiveSync (EAS 16).

I wasn’t able to locate the app inside the Play Store app yet, as Google apps tend to roll these updates out slowly, but you can find it on the web or at APK Mirror.

The impact on you: If you want the full Exchange experience your best bet is probably still the official Outlook for Android app or one of the many good third-party email apps. But it’s handy to use Gmail with Exchange as it can serve as your all-in-one email hub. This update indicates that Google is likely to ramp up the Exchange performance and capabilities of Gmail on Android.

This story, "Google enables faster Exchange Services updates by adding it to the Play Store" was originally published by
Greenbot.